The present invention relates to a fire hydrant diffuser and especially to a fire hydrant diffuser on a wheeled frame for towing behind a vehicle.
Fire departments periodically open the fluid flow from a fire hydrant so as to ascertain that the water pressure is at a predetermined minimum amount required to fight fires and to clean out the water lines. Typically, a fire truck will drive up to each fire hydrant and turn on each hydrant to flush out the water lines and hydrant as well as to measure the water pressure at the hydrant. During this procedure, it has been found that the water flow exiting the hydrant can cause damages to objects, such as vehicles or to the surrounding landscape or housing adjacent the hydrant and to the streets and sidewalks. Thus, it becomes desirable to provide a fire hydrant diffuser which effectively interrupts a high pressure stream of water when cleaning out water lines and fire hydrants to reduce damaging effects from the high pressure stream of water.
One prior U.S. patent which considered this problem is U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,435 to Anderton, et al. for a fire hydrant diffuser having a flared housing rectangular in cross section with a pair of water diffusing members in an opposed relation angled to form a V-configuration and having a stepped mesh structure positioned relative to the direction of flow of water to present narrow obstructing slits for the passage of the water. In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,668 to DeWeese, a water hydrant diffuser is provided which can be connected to a water hydrant when the fluid flow from the water hydrant is being measured. The water hydrant diffuser is formed of a plurality of diffuser elements mounted in generally parallel planes in a housing and has a coupling for securing to a water hydrant outlet. A fluid flow measuring device can be inserted in the water hydrant diffuser intermediate the coupling section free end and the diffuser element. In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,497 to Lazenby, a flush type fire hydrant is provided for use in purging water lines of a water system which have become contaminated. In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,201,338 to McKeague, a water distribution system includes flushing hydrants having buried valve assemblies and a removable top stock carried from valve assembly to valve assembly. In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,772 to Carlin, a delay valve is attached to a fire hydrant and interposed between the hydrant and the hose and restricts the high flow and high pressure of the hydrant to a small fraction of the normal flow and pressure until the hose is filled up, at which point the valve opens fully so that the hose and hydrant are fully operational.
The present invention, in contrast, is for a wheeled fire hydrant diffuser which can be attached to a vehicle, such as an automobile or small pickup truck, to avoid the use of expensive fire trucks and crews for flushing fire hydrants. This allows a much less expensive vehicle, such as a pickup truck, and one individual to go from fire hydrant to fire hydrant flushing each fire hydrant and thus reducing the cost of maintaining the fire hydrant. The fire hydrant diffuser effectively interrupts a high pressure stream of water which avoids the damage to vehicles, landscape and streets in testing fire hydrants and, at the same time, reduces the time and personnel and equipment involved in flushing a municipality's fire hydrant.